Two years ago, Maisie Davies and Alaw Pyrs were lining up for Wales U18 against their Scottish counterparts in the Six Nations U18 Festival. Today the talented teenagers will make their first starts for the senior Wales Women’s team in the Guinness Six Nations. Their dramatic rise through the ranks is testimony to their form […]
The post Amazing Maisie ready for next step up Welsh pathway ladder appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.
Who doesn't like a good playoff race?
With 15 games left in the regular season, it's coming down to the wire for these Los Angeles Kings, their potential home ice, and an exciting prospect of winning their first-ever Pacific Division title. While the ladder is maybe a little far-reaching, winning second in the division for the first time since their return to the playoffs (2021-22) and, realistically, a finish for the first time not named third place will be a refreshing recourse that the team has finally shown some progress towards an organizational and overarching goal for this franchise to succeed past the regular season.
Success in the postseason will go through two teams.
The Vegas Golden Knights sit in first place and have been excellent all year, but they have shown signs of being beatable, enhanced by a 1-3-0 record against these very Kings. A playoff matchup would be a rare sight. Their inaugural season is the only time the Knights have played the Kings in the postseason, which would conclude in one of the closest sweeps in postseason history (still a sweep at the end of the day). It changed the future landscape for the Kings dramatically, while the Knights continued to be a perennial heavyweight in the Western Conference year after year.
Their inception into the league is a massive success story for potential new teams to break into the league, amplified by the Sin City-based teaming being a recent championship squad brimmed with talent after what feels like 'all these years.' There's a well-coached and very good team there, even if they didn't make their typical splash at the deadline as usual. Instead, they made a feel-good move, acquiring and then pairing Reily Smith with the fresh-off IR William Karlsson, reuniting the two original 'misfits,' as they call them in Vegas.
On the other hand, the Oilers stand as the Kings' kryptonite, the death knell, the superfluous hangman for the Kings regarding their recent three seasons of postseason disarray. It's as if the Kings caught the Oilers in the upswing towards their window of contention while the Kings muddled with the remaining years of a facade, a 'ready-now' roster. After their semi-final game seven loss to the Ducks in 2016-17, these Oilers have rebuilt around the four of: 20-year-old Connor McDavid, 21-year-old Leon Draisaitl, 23-year-old Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and 21-year-old Darnell Nurse. The Kings, on the flip side, tried to make one last dance with their championship holders as previously mentioned against Vegas in 2018.
With the departure from grace, they spent a chunk of the remaining years of Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar's prime doing a quick rebuild. With the two former stars outside their primes, management hurled the team back towards contention pursuit despite some massive pitfalls in their schematic. Even with the blatant flaws of the King's roster construction and implementation, the two teams have, for the first time in Rob Blake's tenure, been neck and neck this season, with the Kings holding a more favorable winning percentage with games in hand. How that changes the postseason fate, despite organizational claims that the two teams were close last season: "we were right there," will unfold next month, as the two teams will likely clash for a fourth straight postseason.
It's never a 'hurrah' moment when two of the game's best ambassadors succumb to injury. How the Oilers will do in a critical time without their two most significant drivers of their team's offense (both players having 191 touches on the team's 224 total goals scored this season or 85.2%) will either be their downfall or having to play the Kings in LA for potential games 1,2,5, and 7. This is also a team that chipped away many of its pieces that took the team to the Finals, which includes Kings' very own Warren Foegele. They lost two excellent players to offer sheets, who, in Dylan Holloway, has become one of the best five-on-five-point producers in hockey.
Sounds like #Oilers have imaging scheduled today for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to better understand severity of injuries and timelines to return to play.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 21, 2025
Now, that being said, I'm not saying the Kings have the complete edge over the Oilers. Home ice may not mean anything when the Oilers can still deploy 97-29 at will, despite their forward group being as thin as it's possibly ever been in the McDavid-Draisaitl contention era. The Kings have no match for that, even with a tantalizing prospect of having a third go-to center emerging in Quinton Byfield.
I am however, conveying that this is as close as the two teams have been since their first collision in 2021-22. Home ice could tilt things even more toward the Kings, and there's a legit chance they can make it happen. This is the closest the Kings have come to becoming a coin flip when facing either the Knights or the dreaded Oilers.
It's a cautious time in LA sure, but maybe, just maybe, some optimism for once.
Here's a look at three potential upsets in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament Saturday
Clubs ousting the RFL chair to demand a third review in eight years is a retrograde step that takes yet more focus off the actual rugby
Remember Super League’s historic trip to Las Vegas? The hype, the excitement and the feeling that after years of trying, perhaps British rugby league had finally broken a glass ceiling and could be set for a bright future? That all unfolded only three weeks ago, but given what has happened since, it feels like a lot longer.
Few sports do off-field issues quite like rugby league, but even by its own ridiculous standards, these are unique times. It is perhaps pertinent to start with Salford Red Devils, given their very existence has appeared under threat of late. They have twice been placed in special measures by the Rugby Football League over the winter, the latest coming when their new owners failed to pay their players on time in February, days after a takeover of the club that had fuelled optimism.
Continue reading...Young gets away with blatantly obvious travel in Warriors-Hawks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Hawks star Trae Young, looking like Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. evading the pass rush, got away with a blatant travel at the end of the first quarter against the Warriors on Saturday night at State Farm Arena.
With the Hawks holding a commanding 38-23 lead, Young was double-teamed by forward Jimmy Butler and center Kevon Looney.
Young picked up his dribble at the edge of the Hawks’ center-court logo and shuffled both feet until he was at the mid-court line.
By the time Young passed the ball to teammate Georges Niang, he was holding the ball at least a foot over the mid-court line.
The missed call came back to bite the Warriors as Niang found guard Caris LeVert, who hit a jumper at the first-quarter buzzer to give the Hawks a 40-23 lead.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been demanding the NBA train referees to call traveling more, and he might need to make another plea to the league after Young’s shuffle across the court.
Mathieu van der Poel outsprinted Filippo Ganna and Tadej Pogacar to win his second Milan-Sanremo Classic on Saturday, claiming the first Monument race of the season, while the European champion Lorena Wiebes won the first staging of a women’s event since 2005.
Dutchman Van der Poel, winner in 2023, came out on top in a sprint finish after the leading trio were involved in a game of cat-and-mouse close to the line, with Ganna finishing second and Pogacar having to settle for third.
Continue reading...Virginia athletic director Carla Williams is hoping the obvious choice was the right one. Williams named VCU coach Ryan Odom — whose father was a Cavaliers assistant and who handed the program its most historic and crushing defeat in the 2018 NCAA Tournament — as the full-time replacement to Tony Bennett on Saturday. Odom’s season ended Thursday with a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to BYU.
Former heavyweight champion was always more complex and interesting than his contrasting personae suggested
Boxing seems a smaller and darker world now. George Foreman has gone and, with his death, he takes a little more of the fading light and lost glory of the ring with him. My own life in boxing, which stretches across 55 years, can be divided into stages and all of them carry markers Foreman left in the dirt and dust of the fight game.
From the malevolent force he personified when he became heavyweight champion of the world to the lovable old grandad making hundreds of millions as the face of a food grill business, Foreman could be easily caricatured. But he was always more complex and interesting than his contrasting personae suggested.
Continue reading...Kings convert Isaac Jones to reported standard two-year contract originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Isaac Jones has continued to grind and stay patient, and on Saturday, he was rewarded.
The Kings converted the young center’s two-way contract to a standard NBA deal, the team announced two hours before tip-off against the Milwaukee Bucks.
ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported, citing sources, that Jones’ new contract is a two-year pact.
On Wednesday, Jones reached the NBA’s maximum 50-game active limit during Sacramento’s 123-119 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jones has appeared in 31 games this season for Sacramento, averaging 8.3 minutes and 3.7 points in such contests.
In 11 games with the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate, Jones averaged 20.9 points on 55.5 percent shooting, with 9.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 blocks in 32.2 minutes.
It's UCLA vs. Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament Second Round — we've got the channel, streaming info and tip-off time.
On March 16, Farjestad BK of the SHL and the Anaheim Ducks announced that the Ducks recalled prospect defenseman Stian Solberg to their organization with the intention of assigning him to the AHL with the San Diego Gulls. Solberg was drafted in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2024 NHL Draft after the Ducks traded the 31st and 58th overall picks to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the rights to select him.
Gulls’ Blue Line Strengthened by Addition of Three Prospects
Solberg (19) had played 47 games for Farjestad BK and tallied 12 points (3-9=12) in 2024-25. The cited reason for his assignment to the AHL was injuries within the Ducks’ organization.
Upon the conclusion of Harvard University’s season in the NCAA, the Ducks announced on Wednesday they had signed prospect defenseman Ian Moore to an Amateur Tryout (ATO) contract with the intention of sending him to the AHL. Moore was drafted in the third round (67th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft. Due to Covid, Harvard’s 2020-21 season was canceled, and Moore played that season in the USHL for the Chicago Steel. His rights with the Ducks were extended through July 1, 2025.
Moore (23) served as Harvard’s captain for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, two seasons where they lost back-to-back in the conference quarterfinals and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. Moore finished his 2024-25 season with 14 points (3-11=14) in 32 games and he finished his collegiate career with 56 points (9-47=56) in 122 games.
On Thursday, the Ducks announced they’d also signed prospect defenseman Will Francis to an ATO, also with the intention of sending him to the AHL. Francis (24) was drafted in the sixth round (163rd overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.
He was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2020 and has defeated the disease on three separate occasions in five years. He was forced to sit out the majority of his four-year collegiate career at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and tallied one assist in 39 NCAA games.
The Gulls traveled to Henderson on Friday to face the Silver Knights for a back-to-back series against their division foe and the team at the bottom of the AHL standings. Moore and Solberg made their AHL debuts on Friday evening in a 4-0 victory over Henderson. The Gulls deployed a lineup consisting of 11 forwards and seven defensemen due to injury, which lighted the load of responsibility and ice time for the duo playing in their first games at the new level. The AHL doesn’t track TOI, so it’s difficult to know how much either defenseman played, but it seemed like Solberg received more shifts than Moore.
Solberg didn’t miss a beat in his first professional game of North American hockey. He displayed his typical brand of physicality and made an impact on every shift he played while tallying two shots on goal and taking a minor penalty for high-sticking.
Report: Ducks Organization Recalls Stian Solberg from SHL
Defensively, he did well to close gaps as pucks moved up ice, and he kept those gaps as pucks came back his way. He consistently won battles in the corners and in front of the Gulls’ net, punishing attackers attempting to gain position. He was relentless when his assignment had the puck in defensive zone coverage and unwavering when his check was off-puck.
He was poised on retrievals, baiting forecheckers toward him before sending slip passes or stretch outlets to awaiting, open teammates. He confidently swung pucks high to low in the offensive zone and walked the blueline astutely in search of shooting angles. He instantly became one of the Gulls' best defensemen in his first game.
Moore’s transition to the AHL from the NCAA wasn’t quite as smooth as Solberg’s from the SHL. He was a tad more frantic in his decision-making but settled in nicely as the game wore on. He ended the game with a shot on goal in the boxscore.
Ducks Prospect Nominated for ECAC Hockey Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year
Moore’s skating was the separating factor in this game. It allowed him to recover effortlessly on the occasions when he overcommitted, close gaps swiftly on attackers, and angle opponents into chipping pucks low on the rush.
One would like to see him come away from some of his board battles with possession more often, but when he did, he neatly zipped quality stretch passes to forwards for easy exits. His lateral mobility and long reach allowed him to disrupt attacks on entry and open lanes in the offensive zone.
As Moore adjusts to the professional game, he can evolve into a modern-day shutdown defenseman, using his elite mobility to eliminate time and space before cleanly and quickly getting pucks up ice to teammates.
The Gulls will be back in action to take on the Silver Knights again on Saturday at 1 pm PST in Henderson.
Takeaways from the Ducks' 1-1-1 Road Trip
Leo Carlsson's Scorching Pace Down the Stretch of the Season
Former police officer Tiara Brown became WBC world featherweight champion by beating Skye Nicolson in a split-decision victory on Saturday.
The 36-year-old Brown took Nicolson’s belt when judges scored the bout 97-93 and 96-94 in her favor, with one judge scoring it 96-94 for Nicolson.
Continue reading...The Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers play again on Saturday night, but before that happens, the league handed down fines from when these teams played on Thursday night.
The Pacers' Andrew Nembhard was fined $20,000 for "initiating the altercation," while his teammate Myles Turner, as well as the Nets' Trendon Watford, were fined $35,000 for escalating the situation, the league announced.
The fourth-quarter altercation started away from the play as Indiana's Bennedict Mathurin drove for a layup.
Things got chippy in Indiana
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 21, 2025
Trendon Watford was ejected while Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner received a technical foul. pic.twitter.com/bDbtVAEeIz
Watford began to run back up court and bumped into Nembhard, and those two engaged in some relatively mild pushing and shoving. That's when Turner jumped in and escalated everything by shoving Watford, who pushed back, and things quickly escalated.
Nembhard and Watford were handed double technical fouls for their exchange, and the same is true for Turner and Watford for their escalation. That was two technicals for Watford, so he was ejected from the game.
Tonight's officials for the Pacers and Nets know what happened and may end up calling a tighter game to keep a lid on things.
How Michigan State separated from an athletic Bryant team for an 87-62 blowout in first round of March Madness, Friday, March 21, 2025 in Cleveland.
The NBA got the number it was hoping for in the sale of the Boston Celtics—a $6.1 billion valuation for the franchise, an NBA record by more than $2 billion (the Phoenix Suns sold at a valuation of $4 billion when Mat Ishbia purchased the team).
That sale was one of the things the NBA league office was waiting for before turning its attention to expansion. The league wanted a new, higher baseline for franchise values, allowing it to set a higher price for an expansion franchise. The league got the number it wanted.
Now, momentum toward expansion may pick up again.
While there has been plenty of talk about the NBA expanding — by two franchises, one in Seattle and the other very likely in Las Vegas — there has been no meaningful action on that front. In fact, expansion talk around the league has been very quiet. At the All-Star Game in February it was not a topic around the weekend, nor did it come up when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke to the media. The last time Silver said anything publicly about expansion was in November before the NBA's games in Mexico City.
"There’s no specific date set for expansion..." Silver said at the time. "The process has begun internally at the league office right now. It’s something that we’re continuing to model, to understand the economics of what it would mean to have additional teams."
Previously, the NBA had been waiting for both a new CBA and the new media deals to be in place before bringing up expansion to the Board of Governors (the body of NBA owners). With those locked in, there were some discussions in broad strokes, but the league wanted to see where the sale price of the Celtics fell.
Now the league might slowly turn its attention back to expansion, but this will not be a fast process. It's at least three years, and likely a couple more than that, by the time the league approves expansion, gets new owners in place, gets franchises and arenas built, and gets teams playing on the court.
Is the new asking price for an expansion team $6 billion? It's one thing to pay that figure for one of the largest sports brands in the NBA and the world, the Celtics, it's quite another to pay that just as an entry fee into the league, before adding in the expenses of building an arena and an organization. The NBA's ultimate fee for expansion may be lower than $6 billion, but the reality is the NBA will ask for as much money as someone is willing to pay to buy equity in the league (which is essentially what the new owners would be doing). That expansion fee money is split among the existing 30 owners (for example, two teams coming in at $5 billion each would lead to a $333 million payout to each franchise, money that does not get split with the players but goes straight into owners pockets).
That's a lot of money, which is why momentum toward expansion may pick up again.
